Forgivness
I came across this book while listening to the radio one day and then it popped up again while I was working with a client. The story is a true one about a Jewish man who was imprisoned in the Nazi concentration camps during WWII. At the end of his imprisonment, the Nazi's bring him to a dying nazi soldier who is wanting to seek forgiveness from a Jew for his crimes. The Nazi asks the Jewish man for forgiveness but the Jewish man says nothing and turns around and walks out. The first half of the book is discussing his story and providing more and better details than I have. The second half of the book is commentary from a bunch of different theologians, politicians, movie stars, etc, asking what they would have done in that situation.
I know my initial thought was, "heck no, I wouldn't forgive him" but after more thought and a calming down process, I think that he probably should have forgiven him. Christ forgave us when we commited the most atrocious acts against Him. I am not perfect like Christ but do strive to be more Christ like in all my actions.
I am in a book club and have chosen this book for my month and thought it would generate some good discussion. Here are some questions I had when thinking about this book: Should you forgive someone for sins that were not committed directly against you (ex. the Nazi didn't kill anyone this author knew but committed crimes against his people group), what would you do in that situation? is this a similar situation to the enslavement of African americans and then the aftermath that followed (i.e. us trying to reconcile some of that by things like affirmative action, apologizing as a nation to the black community, etc.).
I think it's easy for us to talk about forgiveness and to say the right things, that we should forgive because Christ forgave us. I think it's easy for us to judge others who don't forgive as easily. I think it's a much more difficult thing to actually model forgiveness in our daily lives, to model forgiveness as Christ would when someone hurts us deeply. It's easy to forgive someone when they bump into you in the supermarket, it's a different story when a drunk driver hits your small child.
I think this book generates some good discussion on forgiveness and is a challenging discussion for both christians and non-christians alike.
posted by Sam at 1:34 PM
2 Comments:
I have a huge problem with affirmative action. I feel like a lot of what goes on today is reverse discrimination. Look at the freaking OJ Simpson court circus for crying out loud! The entire thing was about black pride and everyone knew it. Why can't we forget about ethnic pride and just focus on the deeper issues? It's so discouraging. One time at Wheaton, I asked my friend where we should sit during lunch in the caf, and she said she couldn't sit with me today because it was "Asian Day." And that was totally endorsed by the college. It's just confusing to me, I guess, because I feel like we are scratching the scab of civil rights instead of letting it heal. I know a lot of people think it's not just going to magically get better on it's own, and that's true. But if you scratch the damn thing off with too much attention FOCUSED on it, it's not going to heal either!!!
As to the Jewish man... I think that's different than apologizing to the entire African community for apartheid or injustice or whatever. The thought that comes to mind is that asking one man's forgiveness is almost like confessing to a priest... You want someone to share your burden and hear how penitent you are for the sins you committed. He is keeping the faith with you because he is letting you reveal a horrible weakness or depravity in yourself that only the Lord can fix. If you don't KNOW the Lord, that proves virtually impossible.
I think this is such a good reminder of how far I have to go to be mroe christ like. It's really hard for me to think about forgiving that man if I was in the Jewish man's shoes, and I'm usually a pretty forgiving person!
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